MoneyGram announced a new route for sending cross border payments between individuals. MoneyGram is enhancing its debit card solution with the capability to transfer funds nearly instantly to select countries through Visa Direct. As Yahoo Finance reports:
MoneyGram International, Inc. MGI has partnered with Visa Inc. (V) for the expansion of its person-to-person (P2P) debit card deposit service internationally.
A debit card deposit service allows customers to transfer funds to a bank account linked to the eligible debit card at any time, including weekends and holidays.
Per the pact, MoneyGram’s digital network will use Visa’s real-time push payments platform, Visa Direct, to enable cross-border transfers from the United States to Spain and the Philippines. The company expects to launch the service in additional countries in the coming months.
Using debit push payment networks like Visa Direct and also Mastercard Send will be a growing trend. The global network’s ability to reach across borders to nearly all cardholders within minutes, if not seconds, is a clear advantage over other payment types for consumer transactions. It is no coincidence that Mastercard bought Transfast and Visa purchased Earthport this year to bolster their cross-border capabilities.
More about the Visa/MoneyGram deal:
This move is in line with MoneyGram’s efforts to grow its cross-border digital business. The successful launch of the service in the United States, which helped the company to increase its customer base by 50%, is another positive. Solid customer retention rates coupled with good customer response has prompted further roll out of this service.
The company expects to gain from the partnership with Visa given its strong brand name and image that provides safety and security for MoneyGram’s customers.
The extension of partnership between Visa and MoneyGram points to their intent in making it big in the expanding P2P payments market, which is highly dominated by cash and checks. Real time P2P is attracting huge customers due to the widespread use of mobiles to make transactions.
Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit and Alternative Products Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
